Page 71 of Wretched Heart
I fold my arms and stare at him. “Could you look at it.” I almost say please, but stop myself. Mace wouldn’t respect me for it.
Mace opts wisely to do as I ask rather than have me staring at him for any longer than he’s comfortable with. He stretches across his desk, almost sliding out of his chair as he checks another screen. His brow furrows and he wheels his chair closer, giving what I’ve just sent him his full attention.
“It’s odd, isn’t it?” I ask.
“Give me a minute,” he says. As I wait, his frown deepens. “The actual thread of the conversation is nonsensical.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Which means it’s some kind of code between them.”
“Between who?” Hunter asks from behind me.
“Morgan and someone with an email address that’s just a random collection of letters and numbers,” I explain. To Mace, I ask, “Is there any way we can trace who it is?”
Mace taps away at his keyboard. “I’m doing it now. And…” I have a side view, but I see enough to know it’s a map that flashes up. “Shit.”
“What is it?” Ash asks, involving himself in the conversation now.
“Whoever Morgan was communicating with is in Lancelyn Heights. And if I overlay it with the tracers I have out in the field…” He taps a button and dots appear on the map. “It’s Ray Forsyth.”
My stomach hollows. “It could have been Morgan and Ray negotiating the terms of my marriage to Barrett,” I say. “But the conversation continued right up to this week. It doesn’t make sense. What would they still have to talk about?”
“Mace, can you work out what they’ve been saying to each other?” asks Reid.
“I’m not sure. It doesn’t look like any cipher I’ve ever seen,” his brother says. “They just quote items on an invoice. My guess is the numbers are references to a standard set of responses, but I can’t unlock their meaning without a key. I’ll run more diagnostics through Morgan’s files, but given that the conversation’s on his work email, he’d want to keep the key elsewhere.”
Hunter circles his desk to stand next to me. “If Morgan’s involved, Hugo will be too,” he says, resting a hand on my back just at the mention of my brother’s name. “And whatever they’re planning, it’s going to involve Barrett.”
“It’s time we closed the deal on the paper mill,” Ash says.
The news fills me with equal amounts of relief and dread. Ash isn’t going to make his brothers abandon their plans, and me along with it. But when the deal does go through, my divorce will quickly follow.
Ash’s gaze bounces between me and Hunter. He must see the hesitation in my features, and maybe in Hunter’s too. “Assuming all parties agree?” He poses it as a question. “Remind me, which of you two has the final say in selling your half of the company? I keep losing track of who’s in charge.”
“Maddie lost her veto when we married, but it’s a moot point,” Hunter replies. “We’re both in full agreement that the takeover needs to happen.”
“And I would never backtrack on my promise,” I say for Ash’s benefit. “The only one who can stop it now is Hugo.”
“Then it’s time to meet the brother,” Ash says. “Can we set up a meeting for tomorrow?”
“Hugo has our offer on the table, but we haven’t had a reply yet,” Reid says. “I can send a request for a meeting.”
“No, I don’t want to give him the chance to push it back,” Hunter says. “Ash and I will pay him a surprise visit. We’ll just need Mace to confirm that he’s home.”
“I want to come too,” Mace says. “If you two can keep him occupied, I might be able to sneak away and hack into his home computer. If he’s involved in this little conspiracy with Ray and Morgan, he might have the key to their code.”
“Then I should go too,” I say.
“I don’t think so,” Hunter says quickly. When I turn in my seat, his expression is almost as stony as Ash’s resting face. “Given the conversation Mace overheard after the board meeting, Hugo still thinks of you as his property despite my threats. And it’s not a matter of whether you’re comfortable being in the same room as him. I’m not.”
I look between Hunter and Mace. “Are you going to tell me what Hugo said after the board meeting?”
There’s a flicker of guilt as Hunter realizes this is what he’d been trying to keep from me. “He’s figured out that our marriage is a temporary arrangement, and he plans to bring you home and take control of your assets once we’ve gone.”
“You didn’t think I should know this?”
“I told you not to worry about him, Maddie. I’m sorting it.”
